Ohio State’s Ascent Reinvigorates the Big Ten

CHICAGO — In January, the Big Ten felt united as perhaps never before. After years of perceived decline in its signature sport, football, the conference had seen its champion — Ohio State — become the first league team to play for the national title since the 2007 season, and the first to win one since the 2002 season.

“We want to play in big games,” Commissioner Jim Delany said immediately after the Buckeyes’ victory over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, a national semifinal. “Sometimes you win them, and maybe that starts to change the trajectory of the narrative a little bit.”

More notable, the Big Ten teams — rivals for, in some cases, more than a century — seemed to be pulling for one another that month. The most powerful “shot in the arm” that Ohio State received before taking the field to play Alabama, Buckeyes Coach Urban Meyer said, was the knowledge that Wisconsin had earlier that day defeated another Southeastern Conference powerhouse, Auburn, in the Outback Bowl.

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Michigan State’s mascot, Sparty, at Big Ten media days in Chicago. The Spartans were among the conference’s rising stars last season, finishing at No. 5 after defeating Baylor in the Cotton Bowl.CreditJoe Hermitt/PennLive.com, via Associated Press

“That was as we were walking into our team meal,” Meyer said Thursday. “That was our pregame speech right there.”

The passage of several months and the approach of a new season have concluded this era of good feelings. But as teams gathered in Chicago last week to preview the season, the implied understanding was that the road to the conference title would go through Columbus again.

“It’s actually something we embrace,” said Andrew Zeller, an offensive lineman at Maryland. “Knowing that somebody from our conference has the ability to go to the playoffs and go to the national championship, compete and win just goes to show that anybody in our conference could do that. That just gives us fuel to say, ‘Hey, we could be in the same shoes a year from now.’ ”

Indiana quarterback Nate Sudfeld, a senior, echoed those comments.

“You wouldn’t want to be anywhere else,” he said, “because if we win every game, we can go as far as we want to go.”

Winning every game, of course, will be the hard part, not only for Indiana but for any of its neighbors in the Big Ten East. This could be the year that the division — which includes two teams that finished in the top five last year (Ohio State and Michigan State) and two more with the resources and coaches to become perennial competitors (Michigan and Penn State) — joins the SEC West and the Pacific-12 South as those where prognosticators look for potential champions and coaches nervously lick their lips.

“Demanding,” Maryland Coach Randy Edsall said when asked to describe the Terrapins’ schedule, which includes games at Ohio State, at Michigan State and against Wisconsin. “I think — and I said it last year — this is the toughest division in all of college football, and if people don’t think that, it’s probably in the top two.”

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Of his quarterback situation, Ohio State’s Urban Meyer said, “I’m the most fortunate coach in the country.”CreditPaul Beaty/Associated Press

While Ohio State is the clear favorite, it will start the season with several questions. On Thursday, the Buckeyes announced that four players had been suspended for one game for violating an unspecified athletic department policy and would miss the season opener Sept. 7 at Virginia Tech — the one team that beat Ohio State last year. Among the four players is defensive end Joey Bosa, a junior whom many would peg as the best defensive player in the country.

And Meyer confirmed reports that one of the three star players competing for the quarterback job, Braxton Miller, had begun to train to play halfback instead. The competition to start is now most likely between J. T. Barrett, the sophomore who stepped in last year after Miller sustained a preseason injury, and Cardale Jones, the junior who stepped in after Barrett broke his ankle and led the Buckeyes to the national title.

Admitting that he faced a stressful decision, Meyer also acknowledged his embarrassment of riches.

“I’m the most fortunate coach in the country,” he said.

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Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh, will try to pump new life into an old rivalry.CreditPaul Beaty/Associated Press

The larger obstacle for the Buckeyes, Meyer said, will be the pressure of trying to repeat as national champions. Meyer, who won two national titles at Florida (although not consecutively), mused on trying to win a title as a contender versus doing so as the defending champion.

“I can tell you which is more enjoyable, which is the run up the hill,” he said. “And I’m sure every player would say that, too.”

One of Meyer’s players, defensive lineman Adolphus Washington, acknowledged as much when he said, “In reality, it is different because it’s harder to win a national championship two years in a row than it is to win a first one.”

Still, all the talk was, in the end, just talk. No major sport has a longer off-season than college football, and, it often seems, no major sport tends to be more desperate for off-season narratives to pass the time.

Kirk Ferentz, who as Iowa’s coach since 1999 has the benefit of some perspective, provided a reality check when it came to a narrative centered on Ohio State’s dominance.

“It doesn’t really feel different,” he said, adding: “They’ve had a great program since 1900. That’s not a news flash.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page SP10 of the New York edition with the headline: Buckeyes’ Ascent Reinvigorates the Big Ten. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe